Madam chairman

Sen. Blanche Lincoln (D-AR) is chairman of the Senate Agriculture Committee, taking over from Sen. Tom Harkin (D-IA). Harkin gave up the helm of the 184-year-old committee to assume chairmanship of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, which was previously held by Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-MA), who died last month.

“Coming from a seventh-generation Arkansas farming family, and as a farmer's daughter, I know my father is smiling down on me today,” Lincoln, a Helena, AR, native, said. Lincoln has served on the Senate Agriculture Committee since being elected in 1998. During a stint in the House, she served on the House Agriculture Committee.